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Renaissance
Rachel Ingraham
Unimaginable radiance
will fill you
with a violent power.
You will long to carry candles,
embrace beggars,
sing hymns to the full moon
over a white-capped sea.
You will fall in love
with mountain landscapes,
whisper to the angels
of infinite sadness.
(You will not be able to keep yourself
from praying.)
The transcendent brightness
of experienced beauty
will blind your village
and its patron saints.
You must stretch
to the center of eternity;
reach for the affectionate silence
of castaways.
Rachel Ingraham is a sophomore English and Writing major at Houghton College in Houghton, NY. She has had previous work published in Cicada, and is the founder of a group on her campus that explores the connections between visual art and the art of poetry.
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